October 1, 2025 • 72 mins
Join us for another episode of Uncanny Book Club and explore one of the most influential storytelling sagas in comic book history.
In episode 12 we say goodbye to Sean Cassidy and hello to Kitty Pryde, Dazzler, and Emma Frost. Things heat up with the X-Men encountering the Hellfire Club throughout the three issues, ending with a psychic showdown between Phoenix and the White Queen.
Have feedback or questions for the show? Email uncannybookclub@gmail.com.
Uncanny Book Club is a biweekly read-along through Chris Claremont’s 16-year long X-Men run, which includes some of the most iconic X-Men stories.
Whether you’re revisiting these stories, are reading it for the first time like us, or just want to ride along for the discussion — we hope you’ll join us every other Wednesday.
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Episode Transcript
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UNKNOWN (00:00):
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Baterspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Yo! What's up, what's up?
I'm good, man.
How are you?
Pretty good, pretty good.
I think we've got a pretty solidthree issues to go over today
with a lot of, I guess, we'llsay special guests that I was
(00:32):
not expecting to see.
There is a lot of characters Iwas not expecting.
gleefully happy they are thereas you know we're saying hello
and goodbye at least in thisfirst issue in the first few
pages too right yeah I thinkit's a very first page getting
ahead of ourselves and I thinkit's a great time for us to
(00:53):
probably have a little bit of ashake up with the team yeah
they're getting a little toocomfortable with each other we
gotta shake the tree yeah thepeople watching their back the
machine is too efficient nowScott's figured out how to poke
the bear without getting bittenthey're too effective so we
gotta throw a wrench in thereand mix it up I think they
(01:15):
pretty successfully mix it up inthese issues yeah and I'll be
curious to hear your opinion ofit because I thought the first
issue was fantastic I was veryhappy with it really kind of
sets the stage for what's comingin these issues and really still
builds off of what we're leavingwith the Proteus arc and you
(01:37):
know the things that were kindof happening on the island and
overseas and kind of tyingtogether the story that we've
had been kind of going on rightlike there's little bits and
pieces that are like oh Iremember that and that feels
great right however I felt likethe second book or the second
(01:59):
issue more so than the thirdissue kind of slows down a
little bit and just feels Idon't know like I wanted
something more to happen I feellike that's something that we've
seen with a lot of these thoughwhen we do like certain certain
arcs where we're looking at kindof like a three issue space
(02:19):
where we have like a reallystrong intro and then kind of
like a little like second issuesophomore dip and then for me at
least I thought like issue threepicked up again not to the same
heights as the first issue butstill like this is a good solid
entry and I think that's justbecause a lot of the time it
kind of feels like the secondissue is really just
(02:42):
transitioning us to whereverwe're going with the third issue
that kind of wraps things up.
Yeah, I made a note in regardsto the second issue that it just
kind of felt like we were justspinning the wheels just to keep
this plot moving without reallydoing too, too much.
(03:03):
You know, it was just a bit ofconjecture.
We're just running movingforward guys you know we're here
we are the thing that we talkedabout in the last issue here it
is but we're not really going todo anything that you know really
jumps out right because I feellike the first issue has a lot
(03:24):
of surprises as you mentioned weget to meet a lot of different
people who are very important tothe X-Men books and the history
of the X-Men and if you knowanything about anything related
to the x-men from like the lastwell i mean if you include these
books like 50 40 years thesecharacters end up playing major
(03:46):
roles down the road so to seethem i was not expecting i was
super shocked and then it justkind of petered out in the
second book and yeah i guess itis a bit of a sophomore slump
and some of it might be too thatyou know if we go back in time
these are characters that arebeing introduced for the first
time yeah we're looking at itthrough the lens of like oh
(04:07):
these characters have been builtup for so long big fan of this
one blah blah blah I feel likeissue 129 specifically has it
means significantly more almostlooking at it from that future
lens yeah and we've talked aboutthis before right like I feel
when you're digesting thesebooks you have to go in with the
(04:30):
idea that you know where thingskind of go and how important
these characters can become andLooking at them through the lens
that this is a book from the70s, and if you're reading it at
the moment, you're like a monthremoved from the Proteus arc.
(04:53):
so to get this book and think ofit in that capacity it would be
very exciting right and then toget the second it like to get
the second issue a month later ii'm sure it would have felt a
lot better than reading it inthe way that we're reading it
where it's like back to back ohgreat here's this like kind of
boring story that doesn't reallydo as much as we encountered in
(05:17):
the first issue but i got somereally important news for you
actually hit me with it withthis issue we are in the 80s
published January 1980 accordingto marvel.com oh all right well
we're new decade in a new decadewhich makes sense for them to
kind of shake the team up yougot to get those new faces in
(05:40):
there although from my readingand I'll like I'll bring this up
when we get to it but at leastone of the characters or two of
the characters were about to beintroduced to are very
controversial at the time Ithink we've hyped up enough
maybe we should get into Yeah,man.
Let's go.
(06:04):
I'm excited.
Scott notices something is wrongand asks Gene if he can help.
(06:27):
Gene asks him about datingColleen, to which he says the
two of them are only friends.
That we're gonna have to discusslater.
100% yes.
Scott and Gene then reconnectromantically after Scott opens
up about his grief and feelings.
When the X-Men return home,they're greeted by the return of
(06:48):
Professor X, but the joy of thisreunion is short-lived and
members of the team don'tappreciate how he treats them
like children during trainingsessions.
Scott tries to discuss the issuewith a very rude Professor X,
but they're interrupted byCerebro discovering two new
mutants.
We get an inside look at theHellfire Club and see Emma Frost
(07:10):
and Shaw speaking with Jason asthe three plot against the
X-Men.
We then get introduced toanother legendary X-Men
character in Meet Kitty Pryde.
She's experiencing someawkwardness with falling through
the floor at her house and herparents receive visits from both
Emma and the X-Men attempting torecruit her to their respective
(07:33):
schools.
Peter, Storm, and Logan takeKitty out to the malt shop where
she becomes fast friends withStorm.
Logan and the shopkeep almostget into it over him reading
some lad mags, but men in powersuits crash through the windows
and begin fighting the X-Men.
They all seem to have countersfor their existence So I feel
(07:58):
like it makes the most sense toprobably just kick things off
(08:19):
with a quick Sean talk.
Yeah.
I think it makes sense that hestays behind here I was
genuinely surprised that hestayed as long as he had given
his powers but I think this kindof really capstones his arc
right like he wants to stay withMoira he wants to explore what
that life is like he's not as Ithink like practically useful in
(08:41):
like a combat situation and thissituation he probably just went
through with Proteus wasprobably very revealing of just
you know his ability to dealwith those situations is not
what he used to be yeah andthat's a rough one to go up
against Proteus too when youdon't have powers considering
the people with powers were soheavily outclassed like he must
(09:06):
have just felt like a kidthrowing rocks at a tank yeah
that's actually very probablygreat way of describing it
because Proteus was probably oneof the strongest beings that the
X-Men had faced he did do somepretty significant damage to
himself with the uh with the gunyeah he played i mean i think he
(09:26):
played his role well but youknow i think to see him say like
hey i'm i'm gonna at least atthis point stay behind rest some
more see if my powers come backand you know if they do we've
seen him musing with the idealike since we started reading
the series of he's older he'syou know not the spry young man
(09:48):
that he used to be and stickingwith the you know most of the
x-men here are in their in their20s minus Logan who I think it's
pretty like we know he's mucholder than he appears to be but
like that hasn't really beenrevealed at this point so you
know it's safe to say that mostof them are probably in their
(10:08):
20s I think Peter is theyoungest yeah that sounds right
so you know and like he lovesMoira he can tell that she's
going through this devastatingsituation as you know has a lot
happened yeah we talked abouttrauma dumping and grief and you
(10:30):
know everybody deals with thosethings very differently so you
know when you consider that he'sessentially being a good partner
right like he's being there forher to listen to understand to
help her kind of cope with thesituation and I think really
just kind of push therelationships forward so I mean
good for Sean to kind of seeseize this opportunity to kind
(10:51):
of step back and say, like, hey,this is my place now.
It's not with the X-Men.
Even beyond that, he's been AWOLfor months.
Like, it's been months sincehe's even seen Moira.
Moira thought that he was dead.
So it makes a lot of sense thatthe two of them want to spend
some time together andreconnect.
(11:13):
Yeah, 100%.
And, you know, I think this is agreat time for him to kind of
step back and, you know, there'sclearly an opportunity here.
I think the creative team had avision with kind of letting him
step back and leave him behind.
And, you know, we're going tofill him with a new character.
Someone.
Yeah.
(11:33):
Somebody.
Somebody somewhere.
But it won't be Colleen Wing.
Yeah, man.
I don't know what what theythought that like is Scott.
Do you think he's just likedownplaying the relationship now
that Gene's here, that they'retogether?
I mean, the out of comic bookway of reading this is they
(11:54):
wanted Scott to date Colleen andthen you know either the editors
weren't having it or theaudience weren't having it
whatever it may be I think adecision was made to just hard
pivot the in universe I it seemslike he's downplaying what
happened they they did not seemjust friends to me even like I
(12:19):
mean even if they were justfriends at this point.
They went on dates.
She gave him a key to her house.
Yeah, that's not a very friendthing.
And I mean, like, even thinkingabout that moment, I think she
was definitely pushing for therelationship to be more than it
was, hence the key.
(12:40):
And I think Scott at the timekind of reacted in that way,
like he was surprised to get it.
I think it's probably better tolook at the relationship as
Caldine was a bit of a reboundfor Scott.
Well, he kind of processed thesefeelings that I think he was
coping with the eye.
(13:00):
He was trying to cope with Jeanbeing dead.
Number one.
Yeah.
And I think for him, that waseasier to do with the idea of
saying, well, did I really loveher?
Like, were we really in love?
Was that what this relationshipwas?
Like, I can't help but reallythink about it in a way that
like we've determined.
And, you know, when we look atthe relationship on paper, they
(13:23):
were kind of, you know, movingin different directions.
But that was really because Jeanwas so overwhelmed by the power
of Phoenix and she was reallytrying to find herself in all of
it.
And just, you know, you know, ifanybody's ever been in that kind
of situation, like you're tryingto figure out yourself before
you can figure out some otherrelationship that you're in.
(13:45):
And I think that's probably theway to look at it.
Right.
It's not that they weren't,like, I think they were moving
apart because of that void thatwas forming as these exterior
factors were kind of likepressing in.
And Colleen was basically therebound that Scott just doesn't
want to really tell Jean about.
(14:06):
I like the way that they movedforward their relationship in a
couple ways.
I really enjoy that we've kindof gone around and looped back
around on the idea of, you know,Scott was struggling with oh did
I never love her but now we havehim openly communicating one and
(14:26):
two explaining that whole thingaway with you know I've been
abandoned or like lost everyonethat's important to me you would
have been the most importantperson to me so I just
completely shut that down andthen I didn't have to deal with
the grief and you know what likegood for them for having that
(14:47):
kind of conversation and I thinkdoubling down on the
relationship and you know theyhave that embrace where they're
kissing on the plane and reallytrying to like commit to each
other and to the relationshipand I think like you know they
both agree that they love eachother and this is right this
feels good and this is allobviously happening with the
shadow of Jason Wingard over youknow being over top of Jean and
(15:14):
really manipulating her withouther really seeing that taking
place.
Yeah, and I don't know if we'vefully explained it, but from
Jean's perspective, with theseflashbacks that she's
experiencing, she currentlybelieves that she is going back
into the mind of an ancestorfrom the 18th century who
(15:36):
marries Jason Wingard.
So, and she's, yeah,rationalizing it that way.
And to be fair, like, I don'tthink they really, I don't think
they really, like, dictated thatout until like these issues
where she's like openly thinkingthat this is what's happening
right that she's experiencingsome sort of time displacement
(16:01):
and is reliving some memory ofan ancestor who also was with
some other Jason Wingardalthough you know at times she
seems more I think manipulatedor is buying into it more than
some other times as like we'llsee in some of the other issues
(16:22):
that we'll talk about but youcan tell that she's still trying
to put up a fight but it's veryclear that Jason has his claws
in Jean well and I think part ofit is the way he acts and looks
is supposed to be her ideal guyor like what she would like
dream about her picture well Imean at the very least that's
(16:43):
what he's manipulating her tobelieve it's kind of got more of
a Logan look than a Scott lookto him not to poke the bear yeah
yeah terrible facial hair I meanI think you know the whole
Hellfire Club has like a very Idon't know century-old look to
(17:06):
them if you look at Jason if youlook at Sebastian Shaw like it's
very what I would imagine like1800s fair would look like his
design is is ugly and I'massuming a lot of this is on
purpose but man like there's Ithink it's next issue but
there's like a panel of himwhere it's like man you are
(17:28):
rough to look at my dudeSebastian yeah yeah yeah it's
almost as if they're trying tolike I don't know artistically
depict him as being from like adifferent time and maybe it's
just you know we talked aboutthe Hellfire Club before and you
know it was a very real thingright like it was these
(17:48):
gentlemen clubs that you knowattracted the higher class the
people who were connected therich and powerful and they
existed and they would haveexisted at a time when that
would have been the appearanceof them at least at some point
so like I feel like they'rereally trying to depict them as
(18:09):
being like an old robber barontype of industrialist and you
know like Sebastian kind of Ithink positions himself in that
way as well like he talks abouthow he's built up this empire
and you know he's rich andpowerful and you know now they
are kind of wiggling theirtentacles into manipulating the
(18:30):
X-Men and seemingly have like alot of resources available to
them and even seeing that Emmahas her own school which I was
totally unaware of so we seethat they have some sort of game
plan here for getting youngmutants and bringing them under
their influence and control.
It's all very cool.
(18:52):
I think it's a great evilorganization.
Speaking of Emma, should we justtransition right into that?
I think before we do, I justwanted to call out one panel
that happens here very, veryearly on.
I believe it's on the thirdpage.
And we have this scene of theX-Men.
They're on the plane.
(19:12):
They're leaving Myr Island.
And it's just one little textAnd it says, and terrible
(19:51):
forecast of what's coming.
It's very evocative.
(20:18):
whether he did the right thingby killing him.
And I think that really speaksto his character as a young man
who is a purveyor of justice andwants to do good in life and
really speaks to the characterof Colossus.
So again, great for Chris to laythose breadcrumbs and you can
(20:41):
really start seeing thosecharacter elements playing out
as we've talked about some ofthe other main players on the
X-Men.
Whereas Colossus has, in myopinion, really struggled to
stand out in any kind of way.
He's, as we've discussed, reallyneeding a push here that I just
feel like we still haven'tgotten.
To me, he still hasn't satisfiedthat question of, what is my
(21:08):
role on the X-Men and how can Ibe more helpful?
And here he is questioning whatis really, by and large, a
massive success for thisconsidering the amount of lives
that they would have saved andthe amount of debt that Proteus
caused.
He talks about how he was evilincarnate and it was his life or
(21:30):
Moira's and he had to make thisjudgment call in the moment.
So it's nice to kind of see themat least giving some attention
to Colossus even if it's justvery briefly because we're not
really going to see a ton of himhere.
But yeah, now we can go talkabout Emma.
So first appearance of Emma.
(22:19):
what she does, but we've seenher really become a leader way,
way, way, way, way in the futurefrom this point.
And really helping fill aleadership role and using her
abilities and powers to craftand give haven to young mutants.
And of course, her design isjust, you know, nothing to hate.
(22:40):
One of my favorite things aboutEmma is that even though she's
no longer a villain, she canstill definitely do bad things.
Yeah, at times.
She's very selfish.
And just the extreme amount ofsass.
Did you read any of the stuffwith Emma and Tony Stark when
(23:03):
they were kind of musing as acouple?
Yeah, I read all those.
Those were fun.
What was your thought of them asa couple?
So...
I really like Scott and Emma asa couple.
I think that they are betterthan Scott and Jean.
And, you know, people are sickof having that conversation.
(23:25):
But that's how I was firstintroduced to Emma Frost,
actually, was readingAstonishing X-Men, I believe,
and just being like, okay, Scottis with this person.
All right.
The Tony stuff was fine.
I thought that that was a goodpairing.
I thought that they were goingto have a real relationship just
(23:48):
based on how people reacted toand I tried not to like actually
read the posts but like thegeneral reaction I saw to that
stuff online was at times verylike very um decisive and people
would be like negative about itbut I thought that I thought it
was good they have a fun Ithought the general consensus
(24:10):
was like generally positive likeI thought people kind of
probably I feel like I saw somenegative things but again I also
tried to shy away just because Iwas trying to be unspoiled at
the time and I was coming toeverything pretty late yeah I
(24:30):
think that's fair and you knowwhat like and to be clear like
what you like right like don'tdon't let other people dictate
if you if you like Emma and Tonytogether that's great if you
don't that's okay Emma Frost ishere and it's awesome.
I love it.
Emma's the best.
A big, shocky surprise.
(24:52):
Another shocky surprise we gotwas Xavier.
He's back.
He is back.
That was quick.
Not very shocky.
We knew he was going to becoming back.
He left his bird love behind inspace and has come back and is
still a prick.
He's really a mean.
I felt like Scott handles thethe situation like incredibly
(25:15):
well and you kind of you set thestage but I'll just kind of run
it back a little they have thisloving embrace which I thought
was really beautiful because Iknow that at least for Scott and
Jean Xavier is a father figureto both of them and there's no
hug there was no hug no well Imean in my head canon they they
(25:38):
probably had something it was apsychic embrace yeah they had a
nice reunion at the very leastbut you know I think they even
make mention that the X-Men in alot of ways are like Charles's
children but I think we've seena lot of the story elements that
(25:59):
we've encountered over the lastcouple of issues actually the
majority of the issues sinceespecially since Xavier has been
gone is really seeing Scottbecome the leader of this team
and figuring out like whatpeople are good at and accepting
that they're not children and hehas to lead them in a different
way he can't treat them like theoriginal X-Men and you know they
(26:22):
are all and this is the pointthat Scott ends up making to
Xavier is they are all veryfamiliar with their powers they
don't need somebody to guidethem into how to harness the
powers they have like there'straining and then there is
teaching and He's doing neitherof those.
(26:45):
He is dictating, right?
Like he wants a result from thecurrent X-Men team.
This is Xavier.
This is what he wants.
And he's going to treat themlike children because that is
how he is used to leading.
He is used to being the onlyadult in the room.
And he is used to being the onlyone who is even capable of
(27:05):
imagining himself as being theleader of the X-Men.
When we as the reader have seenScott really come into his own
and you know has earned therespect I think more than
anything else of every member ofthe X-Men we saw that play out
in the last couple of issuesduring the Proteus arc where you
(27:28):
know he was able to pokeWolverine into snapping out of a
funk that he knew was going tojust be incredibly damaging to
him and he did it in a way thatonly Scott could figure out
Based on the experiences he hashad with Logan.
(28:13):
That was wild.
Because the X-Men are not actinglike the original team, which is
an incredible leap to be making.
Like, dude, you left them.
Like, no matter how you put it,right?
Like, sure, you thought theywere dead, which I still don't,
I still have a hard timegrasping here, but whatever.
(28:36):
I'll throw that away.
But you left Jean, right?
When you knew she needed you.
So, like, you don't have anyright to come back and, like,
reinsert yourself and telleverybody, like, this is how it
is, man.
He comes back and he's like, I'mhere, guys.
We can be successful again.
Yeah.
(28:57):
That is a very short way ofputting what I just, my
long-winded version.
You're all wrong, and I'm hereto tell you how to do it right.
Don't be like that, kids.
That's not how you lead.
I was actually quite harsher inmy, uh...
My notes of how I felt about thesituation, but I'll keep my
(29:17):
response quite PG.
We've been at this issue for awhile now, but have we talked
Kitty Pryde yet?
We have not.
Oh my god.
I, again.
Who's going to edit this thing?
That's okay.
I don't really have a ton to addin on the other books, so we'll
probably fly through issue two.
(29:39):
Sure.
And three.
Well, issue 129 is a banger, soit makes sense.
There's a lot of setup, I think,for the other two books, and
then the other two books justkind of happen, so we'll make up
the time.
Yeah, Kitty Pryde, man.
She's one of my favorite X-Men.
I know you really like her aswell.
Shadowcat.
(29:59):
She's ninja.
I never really liked thatmoniker, if I'm honest.
I liked it a lot in the whenKrikko was winding down.
Kitty had a whole badass phase.
I remember seeing a cover forone of the issues where she's
like phased through.
(30:19):
I think they are like an AIMmember and she's holding like a
sword.
I'll have to find it, but Iremember seeing it and thinking,
man, Kitty's just awesome.
Yeah, things get dark with her.
Well, I mean, I'm not surprised.
The way that the Krakoa stuffends, I could see it be really
(30:39):
rough on somebody like her.
One reason why I'm reallyexcited to see her, Xavier
School for Gifted Youngsters,but there's no youngsters there
right now.
I really like the mansion whenit's operating as an actual
school.
And There are certain runs wherethat is the case or that's, you
(31:03):
know, happening.
But that is something that I'vereally missed in these early
issues is seeing.
And, you know, it's because alot of these a lot of the team
is too young at this point,realistically, but seeing them
be like teachers and mentors andthen seeing a whole flock of new
students actually running aroundin the halls and doing dumb
(31:26):
stuff.
So I feel like we're kind ofgetting that started.
step toward that reality withthis introduction of Kitty I
agree when I think of the X-Menand I think of the school I
think of it as a school rightlike I think about the busy
halls and I think about a lot ofthe background characters that
(31:47):
you know may play a bigger roleeventually or you know like
they're just kind of like therebut it brings a lot of life to
the X-Men world because you knowwhen reading these books like
you're really hoping which istotally fine but beyond having
interactions with occasionallywith beast or with havoc or
(32:08):
lorna like we're not reallyexploring the greater mutant
world unless it's through theintroduction of like a an evil
mutant right like that's kind ofwhere we've been and even then
like most of the villains wellmaybe that's not really fair to
(32:28):
say but i was I was going to saymost of the villains haven't
really been mutants.
here and there you know likeit's been a little all over the
place like I mean what likeMagneto Black Tom Black Tom and
Juggernaut well Juggernaut's noteven a mutant he's mutant
adjacent Proteus that's kind ofit there's been a decent mix I
(32:49):
feel like maybe like another themind control guy I don't know if
he's a mutant but I assume he isyeah I'm not entirely sure if he
is he's just a carnivalenthusiast honestly I don't even
remember That's how littlesignificance he had because
Magneto just showed up and puthim down with ease.
(33:11):
Hypnoto.
anyways this is all to say Iagree it would be nice to kind
of see that take place and get acouple like back characters I
don't know that we've evenreally seen because the team has
been so outside of the X mansionlike almost the entirety of
(33:35):
these stories have happenedsomewhere else especially like
the latter books that we've readso I'd be I'd be very happy to
see more students come in and ifif Kitty is the catalyst to do
that, then I'm all for it.
I did want to quickly mentionthat Kitty was not apparently
well-received.
(33:56):
Interesting.
Do you think that that's justbecause she is extremely
youthful at, yes, 13 and a half,as she notes?
I feel like at 13, also, youstopped doing halves.
I think they, you know, maybewrote her a little younger at
times than her.
her actual age I think thegeneral complaint from people
(34:19):
was she was annoying as likebecause she's 13 yeah like a Don
and Buffy issue yeah that's agreat analogy for it yeah
exactly like that that's theextreme though that all being
said I like I'm very curious tosee it for myself being an
established fan of Kitty Bridemm-hmm I feel like she was not
(34:45):
overly annoying but I can alsosee like right now yeah she
seems fine to me yeah she seemstotally fine I can see where
that would have been thefeedback but and you know we're
coming into this with the biasof Kitty's awesome so Yeah, I
mean, it's the correct bias.
(35:07):
True.
You can't convince me otherwise.
We did get a very important plotline development in this issue
where we get a mention of...
Logan reading Penthouse?
Okay, well, I wasn't going tosay that, but I did make a note
about it because what kind ofmalt shop just has, like, porno
mags just out in the open likethat?
(35:30):
Maybe he went behind the counterto get it.
But even...
Still, that's like it's likegoing to an ice cream shop and
there's just a rack of porn.
That's maybe just how thingswere in the 70s and 80s.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe.
No, that was that.
It was that and Coke everywhere.
We get a mention to Warhawk.
(35:53):
Oh, yeah, that's right.
We have to we have to loop backaround on that lad.
We finally find out who hiredhim to break into the X mansion
and we learn that it wasSebastian Shaw.
It's nice to see that havingrepercussions too with they've
been stealing all the data fromthe danger room and have been
(36:14):
using it to come up with thesestrategies that are kind of
working hit or miss between thisissue next issue which I also
like to see you know not justthey have the upper hand and
it's easy win or whatever theX-Men are defeated.
I really like that you knowwe're seeing that ongoing
connected web of plot lines itcould have definitely been
(36:36):
something that they just droppedand I don't think I would have
ever second-guessed it but tosee it be brought back into the
fold I think really givescredence to the Hellfire Club
and to Sebastian Shaw especiallyfor having his fingers in the
pot I think they even mentionedlike Cerebro right like they
(36:58):
were immediately alerted thatCerebro was able to detect two
new mutants and dispatched, youknow, Emma to go to Chicago to
find Kitty and convince herparents to bring her to her
school and then another team togo to find, as we'll learn,
Dazzler.
I think that's probably the bestsegue we're going to get.
(37:22):
The cover of issue 130 tells usthat we'll be seeing the
dramatic debut of the Dazzler.
The X-Men roll into a crummypart of New York in their Rolls
Royce and we see that theHellfire Club is tracking them
and planning an ambush.
Scott and Jean follow the signalfrom Cerebro and end up in a
hidden disco club.
(37:43):
Scott uses a Cerebro smartwatchabout 45 years ahead of its
time, and Jean scans the roomwith her powers.
She picks up a lot of thoughtsthat she calls vile, but notes
that a part of her almost findsthem attractive.
We get our first detailed lookat Sebastian Shaw as he
converses with Jason and Emma.
(38:05):
We then go back to the X-Menthat Emma has captured as Kitty
attempts to free them.
Storm hands her a number tocall, but the Hellfire goons
spot her and she flees throughthe floor.
Jean time slips again afterseeing Jason in the disco, this
time marrying Jason among theruins of a church.
(38:25):
Before the kiss, she'sintroduced to the gathered crowd
as Jean Grey, Black Queen of theHellfire Club.
Back in real life, the kissactually does happen, which is
pretty shocking for Scott.
Before we can get into it,Dazzler takes the stage and they
identify her as the mutant theyare after.
Kitty reaches Nightcrawler byphone to warn him, but him,
(38:49):
Scott, and Jean are thenattacked by the Hellfire Club.
Much like the other group, thegoons have weapons that are
specific to their weaknesses.
Dazzler overloads one of theirbrains with lights, freeing
Jean, who then frees Scott.
Scott informs comes Dazzler thatshe's a mutant and she should
come with them.
The X-Men drive off to savetheir teammates but also pass by
(39:12):
Jason Wingard dramatically whocackles into the night like a
totally sane dude.
Definitely a sane dude.
One of my favorite extremelyrandom tidbits from this issue
was that the Hellfire Club isjust down the street like a few
blocks away from like theAvengers Mansion and I'm
(39:32):
assuming like the X-Mansion isprobably just a few blocks
further down from there, whichmakes Beast's visits to the
X-Men mansion via Quinjet veryamusing.
It's like, I'm not going towalk.
I'm just going to take the jetfor like a 20 second.
I'm pretty sure the X-Mansion isin like upstate New York, no?
Yeah, probably.
But it's still really close.
(39:53):
I mean, yeah, I don't know.
Maybe.
It's just funny that this likeevil hideout is very adjacent to
both places.
It's, I mean, a hide-and-play insight, I guess.
I mean, like, but the HellfireClub itself isn't a secret.
No, Warren is a member.
It's the inner circle where allthe naughty mutant stuff
(40:15):
happens.
The rest of the club is justnaughty stuff happening.
Yeah, that's just your standardnaughty affair, but it's the
inner circle stuff that makes itmutant naughty, or mutant
cheeky, as I told my44-year-old.
Jeez, they grow up so fast.
Okay.
I just want to quickly talkabout these panels with this
(40:38):
disco club.
Boy, oh boy, man.
They are depicting a scene andit is like borderline brothel
slash strip club slash drughouse.
It is weird.
I think mostly drug sex house.
It is a weird scene.
Yeah, it's a weird place.
(40:58):
And like, I think Dazzler evenmakes a mention that this is
like her debut.
Like, she's here at this disco.
And I mean, like, this is, youknow, as you mentioned, like,
we're in the 80s now, so disco'skind of dying at this point.
So now we're just left with,like, the really weird disco.
And that's why they're in thiscrummy place instead of a nice
(41:19):
disco.
I have a random Dazzler tidbitto get into.
All right, hit me with it.
personally and i'd be curiousabout what your reaction but i
thought the dazzler in these twoissues was a little maybe
underwhelming yeah i thinkthat's very fair just all right
yeah i mean when you mix in theidea that dazzler was originally
(41:42):
created as part of this venturebetween marvel and a record
studio and they were going to doall these big things like a live
action show and have share ononly for it to fall apart
because the record label hadfinancial troubles when you have
that in the in the back of yourmind that this was created to be
something beyond just acharacter in an x-men book that
(42:02):
they could you know explore andmake it their own they were
having to kind of deal with athird party here so with that in
mind like you don't have thesame freedom you would with a
lot of the other characters thatchris has created so yeah it's
it's it's underwhelming is thebest that i can describe it like
to see her leave at the end ofthe of these three issues like
(42:25):
whatever.
It's funny that everyone keepsshooting down Scott but so I
know that at some point Dazzlerdoes become part of the team and
plays like a major role but shealso becomes like very well
liked by the community.
So recently I spent too muchtime on Reddit and in the X-Men
(42:51):
Reddit they ran a 50 best X-Menmembers where every day they
would vote on a new person to beadded to the list.
What day do you think they addedDazzler?
Hmm.
Is the day the ranking of wherethey are?
Yeah.
Day one is Cyclops.
That's like the best X-Men islike day one?
(43:13):
Okay.
Essentially.
That's like the general ideabehind it.
Okay.
So it's like Cyclops, Wolverine,Storm, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey
as like the first five Dazzlers.
Okay, okay.
Spoilers.
I'm just going to throw a numberout there, 15.
Well, that would be moreimpressive than what I have, but
(43:33):
I feel like I kind of ruined itfor myself, but it's day 22,
which is ahead of characterslike X-23, Forge, Bishop,
Juggernaut, who is technicallynot a mutant, but whatever.
He's part of the X-Men now.
The list I'm looking at stops atday 37.
I didn't feel like finding themost recent one, but pretty
(43:57):
crazy.
The characters that you justnamed, with the exception of
Laura Kinney, like, I don'tknow, man.
I don't know that I've everreally cared about Bishop or
Forge.
I mean, Forge is pretty cool.
But when I think of the X-Men,like, I don't think of Forge.
No.
I think a lot of this, too, is alot of this list, I think, ends
(44:18):
up being giving thumbs up andkudos to people that were, like,
really important early on.
Like, Havoc is day 28 I probablywouldn't rank Havoc that high
poor Alex but overall like a lotof like the top 20 top 21 is
really solid I do like that wegot Polaris in at day 20 alright
(44:41):
I'm a big Polaris fan yeah Ialso like Lorna as we've talked
about before what uh there are alot of good X-Men characters
yeah well I mean it's a big poolman and I feel like even
recently they've really I thinkgone into the deep end to try
and pull characters that were alittle more obscure and bringing
them to the forefront to flushthem out because I mean like if
(45:04):
you keep on with the samecharacters over and over and
over again you're gonna run outof things to say kind of cycle
people in and out as we aredoing here as we're trying to do
here Scott Scott can't fill hisslot it kind of feels like we're
auditioning potential charactersfor this team like is Marvel at
(45:27):
this point just like we'llintroduce a few people find
someone who the audience likesand eventually bring them back
in and stick with it well as Isaid Dazzler is a bad example I
think here yeah well I didn'thave that knowledge you ruined
it for me yeah I'm sorry but Imean like it's obvious that
(45:47):
Kitty is going to join the teamI don't know what is going to
kind of happen after that like Imean she has to she's day seven
on the list with 200 votes.
Jesus.
That doesn't seem like a lot.
Well, it's the most.
So Cyclops won with 102 votes.
How many people are on thesubreddit?
(46:08):
Is it popular?
Well, it's like 300,000.
It's ranked top 1% by size.
But, I mean, not everyone'sgonna actually vote and
participate.
To vote, you also had to write aparagraph about why they were
awesome.
So, I think that's probably partof it there was a barrier to
entry gotcha yeah okay versusjust like wolverine is best
(46:33):
x-man i mean i'd put him upthere he's he's number two yeah
okay i was gonna say yeah i'dprobably put him number two i
mean i feel like scott is thex-man so wolverine is uh i think
more famous like in pop culturethan cyclops but well we've had
(46:54):
bad depiction of Cyclops inmovies which is weird because I
also really like the actor likeI feel like they got a good
actor for him in that originaltrilogy but they just you know
he didn't have the writing toreally work with or maybe the
direction well I think the issuewas always that Logan was going
(47:14):
to be the main character yeahright rather than it being a I
think like a true team where theteam is the main character every
X-Men movie was always basedaround Wolverine and you know
like whatever it is what it isbut you know we've never seen
Scott being a commandingrespected leader of the team
(47:38):
we've always seen him be kind oflike the jealous you know cocky
Logan's heel and yeah yeah yeaha barrier to him dating Jean his
romantic foil which you knowstill didn't hold why or later
on but I think the fact that weare discussing this and not the
(47:58):
book I think speaks a lot aboutthis issue because there's
really it was alright I don'tknow man it meandered there are
some interesting things thathappened you know the flashback
the kiss you know those areinteresting developments that
don't get explored but whilewe're on the topic of the kiss
(48:19):
at least I do have like notesabout that I really appreciate
the brief conversation of Gene'slike Scott we need to talk about
what just went down and hisreply is basically definitely
however we do need to finishthis and do it somewhere private
and peaceful and not in thiscrazed disco club like the
(48:41):
issues that those two charactershad for for so long was just hey
they're not talking to eachother they don't know how to
communicate Scott represses allhis emotions and instead they're
like hey we need to talk aboutthis let's you know it's a good
evolution of their relationshipand departure from some of the
(49:02):
early issues that we saw themhaving yeah I agree it's nice to
see the growth between themespecially like after seeing
them rekindle their relationshipand the way they did and I also
really like I just really likehow they're playing Jason here
and the way he is just soconfidently manipulating Jean
(49:26):
without her really realizing itand Jean talks a lot about like
passively picking up like themental thoughts of people like
both in the club right like sheshe's already and we've seen her
kind of I think flirt with thisidea of the darker side of her
personality which obviously isbeing injected with adrenaline
(49:51):
from Jason but even earlier thanthat in the last issue she was
talking about how oh yeah like Ipicked up on the stuff about
Colleen because other peoplewere thinking about it yeah I'm
assuming members of the X-Menwere thinking about that pretty
hard like oh my god what aboutScott and Colleen what is he
(50:13):
gonna do they are making outlike oh this is so dramatic the
tea a love triangle in realitywe're probably never gonna see
Colleen again in these bookswith Which is, like, whatever.
It's fine.
I think Colleen played a roleand, you know, it's okay.
But I think seeing Jason and,like, the plan here being, like,
(50:35):
don't worry, Shaw.
Like, I got this.
Like, she's going to willinglycome and join us.
Like, she's gonna see that shebelongs here in the Hellfire
Club.
That she is the Black Queen.
And we see that outfit.
Like, I think we saw it before.
Like, earlier on in the I thinkit was in the Proteus arc.
(50:57):
I don't know if we saw theoutfit, but we saw maybe the top
of it.
She had that hairstyle and themakeup and the demeanor that
she's portraying as the BlackQueen.
She had a whip, too, for somereason.
I think she does have a whip inthis issue, yeah.
(51:19):
Just to complete the dominatrixlook that she has going on, I
suppose.
But...
I really, really like that thisspecifically has been a slow
burn.
And we're kind of seeing this, Ithink like a degrading of her
morals, as we'll see in the nextissue when she's kind of dealing
(51:42):
with these thugs from, you know,the Hellfire Club.
And she's just kind of, I thinklike disregarding things a
little bit more than she wouldhave before.
And you can see the othermembers of the team question
what she's doing because itseems so unethical and not to
mention Kitty's parents yeah andwe'll get to that but there's
(52:03):
even a scene in the next issuewhere these hellfire goons are
like trying to run her down witha car and she basically throws I
think it's like some like trashcans at them but like they just
she like obliterates the car andcrushes it like a tin can yeah
and Scott like is like what thehell are you doing like Jean
(52:26):
like we don't do that and she'sjust like you didn't hear the
fear that was in Kitty's headyou didn't feel what I felt and
it all comes back to this gamethat Jason is playing so like I
really have enjoyed seeing thisplaying out over several issues
(52:46):
like this evolution of Jeanslowly but surely succumbing to
the darkness and we all knowIt's going to lead us to the
Dark Phoenix.
(53:24):
You're pushed out of anairplane, then you fall to
Earth.
Mm-hmm.
It was an alright book.
Uh, yeah, I mean, I put, meh, myfinal line of my notes for this
issue.
It was what it was.
It continued pushing the storyforward.
Mm-hmm.
It's fine.
Whatever.
On to the next one.
And with that, in issue 131, theHellfire Club attempts to run
(53:48):
Kitty down in a car, but Phoenixsteps in.
Scott is angry at Jean over herdestruction of the car, but Jean
explains that she felt Kitty'sterror, and they got what they
deserve.
This is a new mood that worriesScott.
Kitty recounts her story for theX-Men and Jean inspects a
Hellfire Goon's mind for somemore info.
(54:09):
She immediately recognizes thather quote, ancestor's husband in
her flashbacks was in theHellfire Club and wonders if
there's a connection there.
The X-Men pull a Trojan horse tosneak into Frost Industries so
they can save their teammatesand Kitty goes directly to
Wolverine's cage to break himout.
(54:31):
Goons end up shooting Kitty witha stun blast, and Wolverine
informs them that they just madethe worst and last mistake of
their lives.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crewbegins their rescue mission and
fight their way inside.
While they do, Scott keepspondering how frightened he is
of Jean's powers.
Emma plans to completely eraseStorm's identity, but a
(54:55):
crazed-looking phoenix confrontsher and begins a psychic
assault.
The team reunites sans ProfessorX, who told Wolverine he was
splitting off on his own andthat he should go rescue Storm.
With ease, Jean smashes throughEmma's defenses.
The Phoenix energy construct issapping Emma's life force, and
(55:16):
she uses a Psybolt as alast-ditch effort to escape.
A building collapses on them.
Storm and Phoenix are buried inrubble, but emerge triumphantly,
with Jean saying that it's goingto more than a collapsing
building to do her in.
Professor X emerges andcongratulates the teen, saying
he wanted to hang back and justobserve.
(55:38):
When returning Kitty to herhome, the professor offers
Desler a spot on the team, whichshe turns down.
Kitty's parents are relieved tosee her and quite angry with the
professor.
Gene thinks that enough's enoughand alters his thoughts quite
drastically.
Scott is disappointed by this,but Gene explains that it saves
them a lot of grief and that noharm was done by her memory
(56:01):
modifications.
The issue ends with Cyclops andStorm discussing how Jean has
changed and that there is awrongness to her.
Storm specifically notes that itseems like there is a dark side
to the Phoenix and that it seemslike someone is manipulating her
to help it grow.
I wonder who that could be.
(56:22):
Sean Cassidy.
Not that we've been discussingit repeatedly through this
entire episode.
said but what were your overallthoughts on this issue I thought
it was you know I picked thingsup from the previous one though
I thought you know 130 was a bitof a lull 131 I thought was a
(56:43):
good step forward in terms ofprogressing the story really
feels like we're moving towardthings and it had that good mix
of action non-action the actionwas pretty fun and Scattered
around to a bunch of differentspots within Frost Industries
(57:04):
with a bunch of differentcharacters.
So I like the variety.
There was a really cool panelwith Nightcrawler banthing
around and taking out some ofthe goons, which I will now use
to describe these guys, who arealso like anti-mutant.
They keep throwing mutie around.
It's even stranger knowing thatthey work for...
(57:27):
They are in the employ of...
a rich mutant it's weird it's aweird dynamic but rich people
are weird though yeah yeah theyare one thing i did want to
quickly call out is theevolution of kitty pride over
these three issues is verydirect right like we are first
introduced to her because she'shaving headaches she's
(57:49):
experiencing her powers for thefirst time we see her phase
through the floor in her homewhen emma's there as she's like
trying to like relax in herbedroom and she wakes up She's
downstairs and she happens tomost adolescents.
And we see her like later onface through the walls while
she's trying to escape Emma.
You know, the X-Men are onlyeven rescued because she's able
(58:11):
to break into where Storm andLogan and Colossus are being
held.
You see that Xavier's also beencaptured off panel.
Yeah, that was random.
I was really confused last issuewhen they're like, Xavier's been
taken too.
I had to go back and flipthrough to make sure I didn't
skip it.
page well even the wholeinterjection of xavier in this
(58:34):
at all just seems totallymeaningless he could be easily
removed from this entire threeissue arc without really losing
anything he is essentiallyremoved what are you talking
about well he literally justgets up and leaves on his own
like after logan and get up youdon't have to be insensitive
(58:59):
that's He just, he, he justleaves the team though.
Like he just gets up and goesand tells them off panel again
to go get storm.
Uh, he comes back after they'vewon the day and he's like,
congratulations.
Well, he's probably like, it wasme.
It was me the whole time.
It was my master plan ofconvincing you that you were the
(59:21):
ones actually doing this.
He does know how to pick out agood team.
He's a good scout.
Yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
It's, It's very clear that Scottis the head coach here and he's
just like the scout who waslike, yeah, you should pick up
this guy.
He's talented.
Yeah.
But as we see in Moneyball,sometimes that's the position
that matters more.
Shout out to Moneyball.
(59:43):
I don't think that's theposition that matters most here,
though.
Scott is very clearly laid out.
But, you know, even seeing Kittyuse her powers to phase into the
lock and and unlock it like shehas developed her powers very
quickly in a very short likelike a day basically and it's
(01:00:07):
just like a really coolevolution of the character like
already like she's more thanjust somebody who can phase
through the ground or phasethrough a wall and I like I can
see the challenge of trying tomake a character like that
interesting to readers and alsolike to readers that are
predominantly boy teenagersright and that's who they're
(01:00:30):
targeting so like to see herutilizing her powers in more of
a practical way like this isactually how she can help the
X-Men escape troublingsituations and for her to be 13
and helping them get out 13 anda half it's very very brave and
a very great scene that I thinkwill speak towards the future
(01:00:52):
relationship that Logan andKitty have where she helps them
get out and she gets blasted didwith a stun beam or something
from one of these goons andLogan has like is holding her in
his arms and is like this is thebiggest mistake you've ever made
in your life as he like shootsout his claws I like that he
(01:01:14):
most definitely murders themwhile he's still holding Kitty
yeah he definitely 100% didthere's a lot of killing of bad
guys in this early X-Men that Idon't associate with Mormon
modern stories where they're youknow going out of their way to
not do murder unless we'retalking like an X-Force
(01:01:35):
situation but Wolverine's justsort of been allowed to run wild
at times I think he's pickingand choosing when to be brutal
you know what I mean they didhave it coming I think he's is
probably recognized that whenhe's around Scott especially he
has to play by Scott's rules andby you the rules of the X-Men,
(01:02:00):
but when he is not in hiscompany, as was the case here,
it's up to his discretion to dowhat is needing to be done.
The head coach is gone.
I'm calling the plays.
Well, he was accused of tryingto become the head coach.
I also wanted to quickly mentionthe appreciation to the art team
(01:02:25):
for going through the meticulouseffort of drawing drawing
Wolverine's hairy body.
Dude is furry.
He is so furry, man.
He's just one stocky rug.
It's so funny juxtaposed next toPeter, who is just hairless.
(01:02:48):
I do like that Peter iscompletely just squeaky clean.
He's definitely waxing hischest.
I mean, maybe it's a side effectof his mutant power, you know,
like When you're constantlytransforming your skin into
metal, maybe it just waxes itoff for you.
It's like a Gillette razor.
It just shaves it off as itcomes active.
(01:03:12):
He just leaves little piles ofstubble whenever he transforms.
It's a side effect of his mutantpowers.
But we've seen him with a beardlater on, so.
And he has, like, head hair.
I don't know.
Whatever.
That's different.
It's not body hair.
Let's, like, get crazy.
Yeah, I thought this book was,like, it was fine.
(01:03:35):
I liked it more than theprevious issue.
I think seeing Geneprogressively become more
aggressive and careless and Ithink being more a little
vindictive and yeah and like Idon't think her rationale was
(01:03:57):
out of the box given like herargument that she could sense
the fear and everything that hadjust happened with Kitty and not
to mention the acts of which youknow these goons are trying to
take her down so like I don'tthink it's I don't think any
reasonable person would havesaid probably What are you
(01:04:19):
doing?
Hold on.
But we know Scott is, you know,he's a bit of a boy scout.
So you got to play by the rules.
They're heroes.
They're not villains here.
And like, I respect that.
But I think now is, you know,the way for us to close this out
is really talking about theending sequence here where
(01:04:39):
Xavier is like getting reamedout by Kitty's father, who does
not sound like she wants to sendher to his school.
And then suddenly his mind haschanged because Jean has changed
it.
And it was great to meet you.
Please call me by my first name.
(01:05:00):
I love your school.
Given everything that's takenplace in these issues, it is
like a drastic development inher turn to the dark side.
Yeah.
And I feel like this whole threeissues has really been both a
demonstration in that falling tothe dark side and just a like
(01:05:23):
the ease at which sheaccomplishes anything and
everything in these three issuesnothing is a threat to her I
mean at one point she's kind oftaken out of the game went until
Dazzler frees her but like ifshe's not surprised she's just
like crushing cars uncrushingthem puppeting unconscious
(01:05:46):
people really destroying Emma ina little psychic battle and
maybe trying to kill her afterthat fight was really cool too
between her and Emma and youknow anytime we can get the
phoenix superimposed over Jeanusing her powers.
(01:06:08):
Like, give it to me, man.
I eat that up.
Every time we've seen it, itlooks awesome.
And this issue delivers itseveral times.
Phoenixes are cool.
That's why people tattoo themonto their bodies.
Do you have a phoenix tattoo?
No, but I wouldn't be opposed toit.
I got dragons.
(01:06:28):
I have Scott Pilgrim and RamonaFlowers.
Some Keyblades.
a Bioshock quote and a littlething for the Firefly TV show.
I have a Chinese dragon that'skind of like in the shape of a
dagger and then I have a tattooof my first D&D character.
(01:06:50):
Nice.
That's a good choice.
No phoenix though.
No phoenixes.
I would get like a phoenix witha I don't know.
Eating a burrito.
That would be the no i wouldn'tget that i would that would be
sick i love burritos i i dude ilove burritos too so much one of
(01:07:12):
my biggest regrets in life isactually so a friend in college
we were at the tattoo shop andhe tried to get me to get a
burrito flash tattoo likerandomly no like planning at all
just like we're there it's likehey you should get this burrito
tattoo but with wings you know iI did think about it, and I
(01:07:36):
think one of my regrets in lifeis not getting it.
It's never too late, man.
Yeah.
Somebody else can do it.
It's a burrito with wings.
Tattoos are expensive.
Yeah, true dat.
Is there anything else that youwanted to cover?
I feel like we hit all the majorthings.
Just that I really like theconversation with Scott and
(01:07:56):
Storm right at the end with, youknow, we're not only getting
Scott hemming and hawing about,like, hmm, I don't know gene is
sure acting weird we also getstorm who they've established
has a very close connection withgene being like yo i am very
worried about this this uh doesnot seem right and i think she's
(01:08:23):
actually the one that makes thatmention of like it seems like
someone's manipulating herphoenix side to be evil and to
get progressively worse It's abit of a leap, I think, for them
to be making that conclusionlike out of seemingly nowhere.
Like she's been totally fine upto this point and she's had like
(01:08:44):
one one aggressive day.
I wouldn't say she's beentotally fine.
I think it's been like aprogressive thing.
I don't know.
Maybe it doesn't make as muchsense from Storm's point of
view.
It's hard to picture everythingthat we've read.
I think it's there for thereader, obviously, to pick up on
the fact that like her teammatesare seeing a personality change
(01:09:06):
which i think is fair and shedid have front row seats to the
emma situation yeah as scottasks her about yeah it was a
nice inclusion to continuepainting this picture that
everything is not all right ingene's world and it looks like
it's going to continue to bethat way since the tease for the
next issue is and hellfire istheir name so we're keeping on
(01:09:31):
this track we're not doing likea little side I'm all in, baby.
Give it to me.
So what's your rating?
Pretty high.
I don't know.
I thought this was a good followup to the Proteus books.
It's a really hard four issuesto follow, and it's not quite at
(01:09:53):
that same level.
But even with the dip in thesecond issue, I still feel like
I'm looking at like an eight outof 10.
Okay.
It just feels like we're reallyrolling.
We're really moving the storyforward.
We're introducing Shaw, Emma,Kitty, Dazzler, some good action
(01:10:16):
in that third one.
A lot of little events here andthere that are interesting to
see even in the second issue.
I think it's very solid.
I think I would give it a littlelower, like a 7 out of 10.
I did really like 129.
I think it really stands out.
satisfied coming off of theProteus arc and wrap things up
(01:10:39):
nicely with like the group ofpeople who were kind of leaving
behind and with you know thisdevelopment with Sean and the
love kind of reigniting betweenGene and all the and Scott and
all these new characters that weget I really really enjoyed
issue 129 and then you know asI've not shied away at my
(01:11:00):
distaste for 130 and 131 I thinkwas much better than 130 just
continuing the story forward andreally appreciating this long
the long game that we're kind ofseeing play out with Jason and
his mind games with Gene so yeahI think 7 out of 10 is what I
(01:11:20):
would give it and you'reabsolutely right it is hard I
think to follow up on the fourissues with the Proteus arc as I
said it was my favorite by farso far and I'm okay with that
not being the same caliber rightlike I think it would diminish
(01:11:41):
those stories if every singlearc was that quality it would be
very difficult to do so comingoff of that and like I think
your assessment of things arerolling and I feel like we've
been rolling like pretty goodfor the last couple of arcs like
things have felt good like theyhave had their problems sure but
(01:12:04):
like overall they've been veryenjoyable and i i would i don't
think we're altering course hereand given the fact that we're
moving further along with thehellfire stuff and knowing that
dark phoenix is around thecorner that gives me enough
interest and seeing everythingkind of play out and really
seeing this master plan thislong game that chris has been
(01:12:26):
writing play out over the nextcouple of issues i'm assuming
exciting stuff that does it forthis episode of uncanned Thanks
for tuning in to this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
(01:12:48):
If you enjoyed this podcast,don't forget to subscribe, leave
a review, or share with afriend.
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to Uncanny Book Club.
I'm Isaac Baterspiel and joiningme today is my co-host Adam
Ward.
Yo! What's up, what's up?
I'm good, man.
How are you?
Pretty good, pretty good.
I think we've got a pretty solidthree issues to go over today
with a lot of, I guess, we'llsay special guests that I was
(00:32):
not expecting to see.
There is a lot of characters Iwas not expecting.
gleefully happy they are thereas you know we're saying hello
and goodbye at least in thisfirst issue in the first few
pages too right yeah I thinkit's a very first page getting
ahead of ourselves and I thinkit's a great time for us to
(00:53):
probably have a little bit of ashake up with the team yeah
they're getting a little toocomfortable with each other we
gotta shake the tree yeah thepeople watching their back the
machine is too efficient nowScott's figured out how to poke
the bear without getting bittenthey're too effective so we
gotta throw a wrench in thereand mix it up I think they
(01:15):
pretty successfully mix it up inthese issues yeah and I'll be
curious to hear your opinion ofit because I thought the first
issue was fantastic I was veryhappy with it really kind of
sets the stage for what's comingin these issues and really still
builds off of what we're leavingwith the Proteus arc and you
(01:37):
know the things that were kindof happening on the island and
overseas and kind of tyingtogether the story that we've
had been kind of going on rightlike there's little bits and
pieces that are like oh Iremember that and that feels
great right however I felt likethe second book or the second
(01:59):
issue more so than the thirdissue kind of slows down a
little bit and just feels Idon't know like I wanted
something more to happen I feellike that's something that we've
seen with a lot of these thoughwhen we do like certain certain
arcs where we're looking at kindof like a three issue space
(02:19):
where we have like a reallystrong intro and then kind of
like a little like second issuesophomore dip and then for me at
least I thought like issue threepicked up again not to the same
heights as the first issue butstill like this is a good solid
entry and I think that's justbecause a lot of the time it
kind of feels like the secondissue is really just
(02:42):
transitioning us to whereverwe're going with the third issue
that kind of wraps things up.
Yeah, I made a note in regardsto the second issue that it just
kind of felt like we were justspinning the wheels just to keep
this plot moving without reallydoing too, too much.
(03:03):
You know, it was just a bit ofconjecture.
We're just running movingforward guys you know we're here
we are the thing that we talkedabout in the last issue here it
is but we're not really going todo anything that you know really
jumps out right because I feellike the first issue has a lot
(03:24):
of surprises as you mentioned weget to meet a lot of different
people who are very important tothe X-Men books and the history
of the X-Men and if you knowanything about anything related
to the x-men from like the lastwell i mean if you include these
books like 50 40 years thesecharacters end up playing major
(03:46):
roles down the road so to seethem i was not expecting i was
super shocked and then it justkind of petered out in the
second book and yeah i guess itis a bit of a sophomore slump
and some of it might be too thatyou know if we go back in time
these are characters that arebeing introduced for the first
time yeah we're looking at itthrough the lens of like oh
(04:07):
these characters have been builtup for so long big fan of this
one blah blah blah I feel likeissue 129 specifically has it
means significantly more almostlooking at it from that future
lens yeah and we've talked aboutthis before right like I feel
when you're digesting thesebooks you have to go in with the
(04:30):
idea that you know where thingskind of go and how important
these characters can become andLooking at them through the lens
that this is a book from the70s, and if you're reading it at
the moment, you're like a monthremoved from the Proteus arc.
(04:53):
so to get this book and think ofit in that capacity it would be
very exciting right and then toget the second it like to get
the second issue a month later ii'm sure it would have felt a
lot better than reading it inthe way that we're reading it
where it's like back to back ohgreat here's this like kind of
boring story that doesn't reallydo as much as we encountered in
(05:17):
the first issue but i got somereally important news for you
actually hit me with it withthis issue we are in the 80s
published January 1980 accordingto marvel.com oh all right well
we're new decade in a new decadewhich makes sense for them to
kind of shake the team up yougot to get those new faces in
(05:40):
there although from my readingand I'll like I'll bring this up
when we get to it but at leastone of the characters or two of
the characters were about to beintroduced to are very
controversial at the time Ithink we've hyped up enough
maybe we should get into Yeah,man.
Let's go.
(06:04):
I'm excited.
Scott notices something is wrongand asks Gene if he can help.
(06:27):
Gene asks him about datingColleen, to which he says the
two of them are only friends.
That we're gonna have to discusslater.
100% yes.
Scott and Gene then reconnectromantically after Scott opens
up about his grief and feelings.
When the X-Men return home,they're greeted by the return of
(06:48):
Professor X, but the joy of thisreunion is short-lived and
members of the team don'tappreciate how he treats them
like children during trainingsessions.
Scott tries to discuss the issuewith a very rude Professor X,
but they're interrupted byCerebro discovering two new
mutants.
We get an inside look at theHellfire Club and see Emma Frost
(07:10):
and Shaw speaking with Jason asthe three plot against the
X-Men.
We then get introduced toanother legendary X-Men
character in Meet Kitty Pryde.
She's experiencing someawkwardness with falling through
the floor at her house and herparents receive visits from both
Emma and the X-Men attempting torecruit her to their respective
(07:33):
schools.
Peter, Storm, and Logan takeKitty out to the malt shop where
she becomes fast friends withStorm.
Logan and the shopkeep almostget into it over him reading
some lad mags, but men in powersuits crash through the windows
and begin fighting the X-Men.
They all seem to have countersfor their existence So I feel
(07:58):
like it makes the most sense toprobably just kick things off
(08:19):
with a quick Sean talk.
Yeah.
I think it makes sense that hestays behind here I was
genuinely surprised that hestayed as long as he had given
his powers but I think this kindof really capstones his arc
right like he wants to stay withMoira he wants to explore what
that life is like he's not as Ithink like practically useful in
(08:41):
like a combat situation and thissituation he probably just went
through with Proteus wasprobably very revealing of just
you know his ability to dealwith those situations is not
what he used to be yeah andthat's a rough one to go up
against Proteus too when youdon't have powers considering
the people with powers were soheavily outclassed like he must
(09:06):
have just felt like a kidthrowing rocks at a tank yeah
that's actually very probablygreat way of describing it
because Proteus was probably oneof the strongest beings that the
X-Men had faced he did do somepretty significant damage to
himself with the uh with the gunyeah he played i mean i think he
(09:26):
played his role well but youknow i think to see him say like
hey i'm i'm gonna at least atthis point stay behind rest some
more see if my powers come backand you know if they do we've
seen him musing with the idealike since we started reading
the series of he's older he'syou know not the spry young man
(09:48):
that he used to be and stickingwith the you know most of the
x-men here are in their in their20s minus Logan who I think it's
pretty like we know he's mucholder than he appears to be but
like that hasn't really beenrevealed at this point so you
know it's safe to say that mostof them are probably in their
(10:08):
20s I think Peter is theyoungest yeah that sounds right
so you know and like he lovesMoira he can tell that she's
going through this devastatingsituation as you know has a lot
happened yeah we talked abouttrauma dumping and grief and you
(10:30):
know everybody deals with thosethings very differently so you
know when you consider that he'sessentially being a good partner
right like he's being there forher to listen to understand to
help her kind of cope with thesituation and I think really
just kind of push therelationships forward so I mean
good for Sean to kind of seeseize this opportunity to kind
(10:51):
of step back and say, like, hey,this is my place now.
It's not with the X-Men.
Even beyond that, he's been AWOLfor months.
Like, it's been months sincehe's even seen Moira.
Moira thought that he was dead.
So it makes a lot of sense thatthe two of them want to spend
some time together andreconnect.
(11:13):
Yeah, 100%.
And, you know, I think this is agreat time for him to kind of
step back and, you know, there'sclearly an opportunity here.
I think the creative team had avision with kind of letting him
step back and leave him behind.
And, you know, we're going tofill him with a new character.
Someone.
Yeah.
(11:33):
Somebody.
Somebody somewhere.
But it won't be Colleen Wing.
Yeah, man.
I don't know what what theythought that like is Scott.
Do you think he's just likedownplaying the relationship now
that Gene's here, that they'retogether?
I mean, the out of comic bookway of reading this is they
(11:54):
wanted Scott to date Colleen andthen you know either the editors
weren't having it or theaudience weren't having it
whatever it may be I think adecision was made to just hard
pivot the in universe I it seemslike he's downplaying what
happened they they did not seemjust friends to me even like I
(12:19):
mean even if they were justfriends at this point.
They went on dates.
She gave him a key to her house.
Yeah, that's not a very friendthing.
And I mean, like, even thinkingabout that moment, I think she
was definitely pushing for therelationship to be more than it
was, hence the key.
(12:40):
And I think Scott at the timekind of reacted in that way,
like he was surprised to get it.
I think it's probably better tolook at the relationship as
Caldine was a bit of a reboundfor Scott.
Well, he kind of processed thesefeelings that I think he was
coping with the eye.
(13:00):
He was trying to cope with Jeanbeing dead.
Number one.
Yeah.
And I think for him, that waseasier to do with the idea of
saying, well, did I really loveher?
Like, were we really in love?
Was that what this relationshipwas?
Like, I can't help but reallythink about it in a way that
like we've determined.
And, you know, when we look atthe relationship on paper, they
(13:23):
were kind of, you know, movingin different directions.
But that was really because Jeanwas so overwhelmed by the power
of Phoenix and she was reallytrying to find herself in all of
it.
And just, you know, you know, ifanybody's ever been in that kind
of situation, like you're tryingto figure out yourself before
you can figure out some otherrelationship that you're in.
(13:45):
And I think that's probably theway to look at it.
Right.
It's not that they weren't,like, I think they were moving
apart because of that void thatwas forming as these exterior
factors were kind of likepressing in.
And Colleen was basically therebound that Scott just doesn't
want to really tell Jean about.
(14:06):
I like the way that they movedforward their relationship in a
couple ways.
I really enjoy that we've kindof gone around and looped back
around on the idea of, you know,Scott was struggling with oh did
I never love her but now we havehim openly communicating one and
(14:26):
two explaining that whole thingaway with you know I've been
abandoned or like lost everyonethat's important to me you would
have been the most importantperson to me so I just
completely shut that down andthen I didn't have to deal with
the grief and you know what likegood for them for having that
(14:47):
kind of conversation and I thinkdoubling down on the
relationship and you know theyhave that embrace where they're
kissing on the plane and reallytrying to like commit to each
other and to the relationshipand I think like you know they
both agree that they love eachother and this is right this
feels good and this is allobviously happening with the
shadow of Jason Wingard over youknow being over top of Jean and
(15:14):
really manipulating her withouther really seeing that taking
place.
Yeah, and I don't know if we'vefully explained it, but from
Jean's perspective, with theseflashbacks that she's
experiencing, she currentlybelieves that she is going back
into the mind of an ancestorfrom the 18th century who
(15:36):
marries Jason Wingard.
So, and she's, yeah,rationalizing it that way.
And to be fair, like, I don'tthink they really, I don't think
they really, like, dictated thatout until like these issues
where she's like openly thinkingthat this is what's happening
right that she's experiencingsome sort of time displacement
(16:01):
and is reliving some memory ofan ancestor who also was with
some other Jason Wingardalthough you know at times she
seems more I think manipulatedor is buying into it more than
some other times as like we'llsee in some of the other issues
(16:22):
that we'll talk about but youcan tell that she's still trying
to put up a fight but it's veryclear that Jason has his claws
in Jean well and I think part ofit is the way he acts and looks
is supposed to be her ideal guyor like what she would like
dream about her picture well Imean at the very least that's
(16:43):
what he's manipulating her tobelieve it's kind of got more of
a Logan look than a Scott lookto him not to poke the bear yeah
yeah terrible facial hair I meanI think you know the whole
Hellfire Club has like a very Idon't know century-old look to
(17:06):
them if you look at Jason if youlook at Sebastian Shaw like it's
very what I would imagine like1800s fair would look like his
design is is ugly and I'massuming a lot of this is on
purpose but man like there's Ithink it's next issue but
there's like a panel of himwhere it's like man you are
(17:28):
rough to look at my dudeSebastian yeah yeah yeah it's
almost as if they're trying tolike I don't know artistically
depict him as being from like adifferent time and maybe it's
just you know we talked aboutthe Hellfire Club before and you
know it was a very real thingright like it was these
(17:48):
gentlemen clubs that you knowattracted the higher class the
people who were connected therich and powerful and they
existed and they would haveexisted at a time when that
would have been the appearanceof them at least at some point
so like I feel like they'rereally trying to depict them as
(18:09):
being like an old robber barontype of industrialist and you
know like Sebastian kind of Ithink positions himself in that
way as well like he talks abouthow he's built up this empire
and you know he's rich andpowerful and you know now they
are kind of wiggling theirtentacles into manipulating the
(18:30):
X-Men and seemingly have like alot of resources available to
them and even seeing that Emmahas her own school which I was
totally unaware of so we seethat they have some sort of game
plan here for getting youngmutants and bringing them under
their influence and control.
It's all very cool.
(18:52):
I think it's a great evilorganization.
Speaking of Emma, should we justtransition right into that?
I think before we do, I justwanted to call out one panel
that happens here very, veryearly on.
I believe it's on the thirdpage.
And we have this scene of theX-Men.
They're on the plane.
(19:12):
They're leaving Myr Island.
And it's just one little textAnd it says, and terrible
(19:51):
forecast of what's coming.
It's very evocative.
(20:18):
whether he did the right thingby killing him.
And I think that really speaksto his character as a young man
who is a purveyor of justice andwants to do good in life and
really speaks to the characterof Colossus.
So again, great for Chris to laythose breadcrumbs and you can
(20:41):
really start seeing thosecharacter elements playing out
as we've talked about some ofthe other main players on the
X-Men.
Whereas Colossus has, in myopinion, really struggled to
stand out in any kind of way.
He's, as we've discussed, reallyneeding a push here that I just
feel like we still haven'tgotten.
To me, he still hasn't satisfiedthat question of, what is my
(21:08):
role on the X-Men and how can Ibe more helpful?
And here he is questioning whatis really, by and large, a
massive success for thisconsidering the amount of lives
that they would have saved andthe amount of debt that Proteus
caused.
He talks about how he was evilincarnate and it was his life or
(21:30):
Moira's and he had to make thisjudgment call in the moment.
So it's nice to kind of see themat least giving some attention
to Colossus even if it's justvery briefly because we're not
really going to see a ton of himhere.
But yeah, now we can go talkabout Emma.
So first appearance of Emma.
(22:19):
what she does, but we've seenher really become a leader way,
way, way, way, way in the futurefrom this point.
And really helping fill aleadership role and using her
abilities and powers to craftand give haven to young mutants.
And of course, her design isjust, you know, nothing to hate.
(22:40):
One of my favorite things aboutEmma is that even though she's
no longer a villain, she canstill definitely do bad things.
Yeah, at times.
She's very selfish.
And just the extreme amount ofsass.
Did you read any of the stuffwith Emma and Tony Stark when
(23:03):
they were kind of musing as acouple?
Yeah, I read all those.
Those were fun.
What was your thought of them asa couple?
So...
I really like Scott and Emma asa couple.
I think that they are betterthan Scott and Jean.
And, you know, people are sickof having that conversation.
(23:25):
But that's how I was firstintroduced to Emma Frost,
actually, was readingAstonishing X-Men, I believe,
and just being like, okay, Scottis with this person.
All right.
The Tony stuff was fine.
I thought that that was a goodpairing.
I thought that they were goingto have a real relationship just
(23:48):
based on how people reacted toand I tried not to like actually
read the posts but like thegeneral reaction I saw to that
stuff online was at times verylike very um decisive and people
would be like negative about itbut I thought that I thought it
was good they have a fun Ithought the general consensus
(24:10):
was like generally positive likeI thought people kind of
probably I feel like I saw somenegative things but again I also
tried to shy away just because Iwas trying to be unspoiled at
the time and I was coming toeverything pretty late yeah I
(24:30):
think that's fair and you knowwhat like and to be clear like
what you like right like don'tdon't let other people dictate
if you if you like Emma and Tonytogether that's great if you
don't that's okay Emma Frost ishere and it's awesome.
I love it.
Emma's the best.
A big, shocky surprise.
(24:52):
Another shocky surprise we gotwas Xavier.
He's back.
He is back.
That was quick.
Not very shocky.
We knew he was going to becoming back.
He left his bird love behind inspace and has come back and is
still a prick.
He's really a mean.
I felt like Scott handles thethe situation like incredibly
(25:15):
well and you kind of you set thestage but I'll just kind of run
it back a little they have thisloving embrace which I thought
was really beautiful because Iknow that at least for Scott and
Jean Xavier is a father figureto both of them and there's no
hug there was no hug no well Imean in my head canon they they
(25:38):
probably had something it was apsychic embrace yeah they had a
nice reunion at the very leastbut you know I think they even
make mention that the X-Men in alot of ways are like Charles's
children but I think we've seena lot of the story elements that
(25:59):
we've encountered over the lastcouple of issues actually the
majority of the issues sinceespecially since Xavier has been
gone is really seeing Scottbecome the leader of this team
and figuring out like whatpeople are good at and accepting
that they're not children and hehas to lead them in a different
way he can't treat them like theoriginal X-Men and you know they
(26:22):
are all and this is the pointthat Scott ends up making to
Xavier is they are all veryfamiliar with their powers they
don't need somebody to guidethem into how to harness the
powers they have like there'straining and then there is
teaching and He's doing neitherof those.
(26:45):
He is dictating, right?
Like he wants a result from thecurrent X-Men team.
This is Xavier.
This is what he wants.
And he's going to treat themlike children because that is
how he is used to leading.
He is used to being the onlyadult in the room.
And he is used to being the onlyone who is even capable of
(27:05):
imagining himself as being theleader of the X-Men.
When we as the reader have seenScott really come into his own
and you know has earned therespect I think more than
anything else of every member ofthe X-Men we saw that play out
in the last couple of issuesduring the Proteus arc where you
(27:28):
know he was able to pokeWolverine into snapping out of a
funk that he knew was going tojust be incredibly damaging to
him and he did it in a way thatonly Scott could figure out
Based on the experiences he hashad with Logan.
(28:13):
That was wild.
Because the X-Men are not actinglike the original team, which is
an incredible leap to be making.
Like, dude, you left them.
Like, no matter how you put it,right?
Like, sure, you thought theywere dead, which I still don't,
I still have a hard timegrasping here, but whatever.
(28:36):
I'll throw that away.
But you left Jean, right?
When you knew she needed you.
So, like, you don't have anyright to come back and, like,
reinsert yourself and telleverybody, like, this is how it
is, man.
He comes back and he's like, I'mhere, guys.
We can be successful again.
Yeah.
(28:57):
That is a very short way ofputting what I just, my
long-winded version.
You're all wrong, and I'm hereto tell you how to do it right.
Don't be like that, kids.
That's not how you lead.
I was actually quite harsher inmy, uh...
My notes of how I felt about thesituation, but I'll keep my
(29:17):
response quite PG.
We've been at this issue for awhile now, but have we talked
Kitty Pryde yet?
We have not.
Oh my god.
I, again.
Who's going to edit this thing?
That's okay.
I don't really have a ton to addin on the other books, so we'll
probably fly through issue two.
(29:39):
Sure.
And three.
Well, issue 129 is a banger, soit makes sense.
There's a lot of setup, I think,for the other two books, and
then the other two books justkind of happen, so we'll make up
the time.
Yeah, Kitty Pryde, man.
She's one of my favorite X-Men.
I know you really like her aswell.
Shadowcat.
(29:59):
She's ninja.
I never really liked thatmoniker, if I'm honest.
I liked it a lot in the whenKrikko was winding down.
Kitty had a whole badass phase.
I remember seeing a cover forone of the issues where she's
like phased through.
(30:19):
I think they are like an AIMmember and she's holding like a
sword.
I'll have to find it, but Iremember seeing it and thinking,
man, Kitty's just awesome.
Yeah, things get dark with her.
Well, I mean, I'm not surprised.
The way that the Krakoa stuffends, I could see it be really
(30:39):
rough on somebody like her.
One reason why I'm reallyexcited to see her, Xavier
School for Gifted Youngsters,but there's no youngsters there
right now.
I really like the mansion whenit's operating as an actual
school.
And There are certain runs wherethat is the case or that's, you
(31:03):
know, happening.
But that is something that I'vereally missed in these early
issues is seeing.
And, you know, it's because alot of these a lot of the team
is too young at this point,realistically, but seeing them
be like teachers and mentors andthen seeing a whole flock of new
students actually running aroundin the halls and doing dumb
(31:26):
stuff.
So I feel like we're kind ofgetting that started.
step toward that reality withthis introduction of Kitty I
agree when I think of the X-Menand I think of the school I
think of it as a school rightlike I think about the busy
halls and I think about a lot ofthe background characters that
(31:47):
you know may play a bigger roleeventually or you know like
they're just kind of like therebut it brings a lot of life to
the X-Men world because you knowwhen reading these books like
you're really hoping which istotally fine but beyond having
interactions with occasionallywith beast or with havoc or
(32:08):
lorna like we're not reallyexploring the greater mutant
world unless it's through theintroduction of like a an evil
mutant right like that's kind ofwhere we've been and even then
like most of the villains wellmaybe that's not really fair to
(32:28):
say but i was I was going to saymost of the villains haven't
really been mutants.
here and there you know likeit's been a little all over the
place like I mean what likeMagneto Black Tom Black Tom and
Juggernaut well Juggernaut's noteven a mutant he's mutant
adjacent Proteus that's kind ofit there's been a decent mix I
(32:49):
feel like maybe like another themind control guy I don't know if
he's a mutant but I assume he isyeah I'm not entirely sure if he
is he's just a carnivalenthusiast honestly I don't even
remember That's how littlesignificance he had because
Magneto just showed up and puthim down with ease.
(33:11):
Hypnoto.
anyways this is all to say Iagree it would be nice to kind
of see that take place and get acouple like back characters I
don't know that we've evenreally seen because the team has
been so outside of the X mansionlike almost the entirety of
(33:35):
these stories have happenedsomewhere else especially like
the latter books that we've readso I'd be I'd be very happy to
see more students come in and ifif Kitty is the catalyst to do
that, then I'm all for it.
I did want to quickly mentionthat Kitty was not apparently
well-received.
(33:56):
Interesting.
Do you think that that's justbecause she is extremely
youthful at, yes, 13 and a half,as she notes?
I feel like at 13, also, youstopped doing halves.
I think they, you know, maybewrote her a little younger at
times than her.
her actual age I think thegeneral complaint from people
(34:19):
was she was annoying as likebecause she's 13 yeah like a Don
and Buffy issue yeah that's agreat analogy for it yeah
exactly like that that's theextreme though that all being
said I like I'm very curious tosee it for myself being an
established fan of Kitty Bridemm-hmm I feel like she was not
(34:45):
overly annoying but I can alsosee like right now yeah she
seems fine to me yeah she seemstotally fine I can see where
that would have been thefeedback but and you know we're
coming into this with the biasof Kitty's awesome so Yeah, I
mean, it's the correct bias.
(35:07):
True.
You can't convince me otherwise.
We did get a very important plotline development in this issue
where we get a mention of...
Logan reading Penthouse?
Okay, well, I wasn't going tosay that, but I did make a note
about it because what kind ofmalt shop just has, like, porno
mags just out in the open likethat?
(35:30):
Maybe he went behind the counterto get it.
But even...
Still, that's like it's likegoing to an ice cream shop and
there's just a rack of porn.
That's maybe just how thingswere in the 70s and 80s.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Maybe.
No, that was that.
It was that and Coke everywhere.
We get a mention to Warhawk.
(35:53):
Oh, yeah, that's right.
We have to we have to loop backaround on that lad.
We finally find out who hiredhim to break into the X mansion
and we learn that it wasSebastian Shaw.
It's nice to see that havingrepercussions too with they've
been stealing all the data fromthe danger room and have been
(36:14):
using it to come up with thesestrategies that are kind of
working hit or miss between thisissue next issue which I also
like to see you know not justthey have the upper hand and
it's easy win or whatever theX-Men are defeated.
I really like that you knowwe're seeing that ongoing
connected web of plot lines itcould have definitely been
(36:36):
something that they just droppedand I don't think I would have
ever second-guessed it but tosee it be brought back into the
fold I think really givescredence to the Hellfire Club
and to Sebastian Shaw especiallyfor having his fingers in the
pot I think they even mentionedlike Cerebro right like they
(36:58):
were immediately alerted thatCerebro was able to detect two
new mutants and dispatched, youknow, Emma to go to Chicago to
find Kitty and convince herparents to bring her to her
school and then another team togo to find, as we'll learn,
Dazzler.
I think that's probably the bestsegue we're going to get.
(37:22):
The cover of issue 130 tells usthat we'll be seeing the
dramatic debut of the Dazzler.
The X-Men roll into a crummypart of New York in their Rolls
Royce and we see that theHellfire Club is tracking them
and planning an ambush.
Scott and Jean follow the signalfrom Cerebro and end up in a
hidden disco club.
(37:43):
Scott uses a Cerebro smartwatchabout 45 years ahead of its
time, and Jean scans the roomwith her powers.
She picks up a lot of thoughtsthat she calls vile, but notes
that a part of her almost findsthem attractive.
We get our first detailed lookat Sebastian Shaw as he
converses with Jason and Emma.
(38:05):
We then go back to the X-Menthat Emma has captured as Kitty
attempts to free them.
Storm hands her a number tocall, but the Hellfire goons
spot her and she flees throughthe floor.
Jean time slips again afterseeing Jason in the disco, this
time marrying Jason among theruins of a church.
(38:25):
Before the kiss, she'sintroduced to the gathered crowd
as Jean Grey, Black Queen of theHellfire Club.
Back in real life, the kissactually does happen, which is
pretty shocking for Scott.
Before we can get into it,Dazzler takes the stage and they
identify her as the mutant theyare after.
Kitty reaches Nightcrawler byphone to warn him, but him,
(38:49):
Scott, and Jean are thenattacked by the Hellfire Club.
Much like the other group, thegoons have weapons that are
specific to their weaknesses.
Dazzler overloads one of theirbrains with lights, freeing
Jean, who then frees Scott.
Scott informs comes Dazzler thatshe's a mutant and she should
come with them.
The X-Men drive off to savetheir teammates but also pass by
(39:12):
Jason Wingard dramatically whocackles into the night like a
totally sane dude.
Definitely a sane dude.
One of my favorite extremelyrandom tidbits from this issue
was that the Hellfire Club isjust down the street like a few
blocks away from like theAvengers Mansion and I'm
(39:32):
assuming like the X-Mansion isprobably just a few blocks
further down from there, whichmakes Beast's visits to the
X-Men mansion via Quinjet veryamusing.
It's like, I'm not going towalk.
I'm just going to take the jetfor like a 20 second.
I'm pretty sure the X-Mansion isin like upstate New York, no?
Yeah, probably.
But it's still really close.
(39:53):
I mean, yeah, I don't know.
Maybe.
It's just funny that this likeevil hideout is very adjacent to
both places.
It's, I mean, a hide-and-play insight, I guess.
I mean, like, but the HellfireClub itself isn't a secret.
No, Warren is a member.
It's the inner circle where allthe naughty mutant stuff
(40:15):
happens.
The rest of the club is justnaughty stuff happening.
Yeah, that's just your standardnaughty affair, but it's the
inner circle stuff that makes itmutant naughty, or mutant
cheeky, as I told my44-year-old.
Jeez, they grow up so fast.
Okay.
I just want to quickly talkabout these panels with this
(40:38):
disco club.
Boy, oh boy, man.
They are depicting a scene andit is like borderline brothel
slash strip club slash drughouse.
It is weird.
I think mostly drug sex house.
It is a weird scene.
Yeah, it's a weird place.
(40:58):
And like, I think Dazzler evenmakes a mention that this is
like her debut.
Like, she's here at this disco.
And I mean, like, this is, youknow, as you mentioned, like,
we're in the 80s now, so disco'skind of dying at this point.
So now we're just left with,like, the really weird disco.
And that's why they're in thiscrummy place instead of a nice
(41:19):
disco.
I have a random Dazzler tidbitto get into.
All right, hit me with it.
personally and i'd be curiousabout what your reaction but i
thought the dazzler in these twoissues was a little maybe
underwhelming yeah i thinkthat's very fair just all right
yeah i mean when you mix in theidea that dazzler was originally
(41:42):
created as part of this venturebetween marvel and a record
studio and they were going to doall these big things like a live
action show and have share ononly for it to fall apart
because the record label hadfinancial troubles when you have
that in the in the back of yourmind that this was created to be
something beyond just acharacter in an x-men book that
(42:02):
they could you know explore andmake it their own they were
having to kind of deal with athird party here so with that in
mind like you don't have thesame freedom you would with a
lot of the other characters thatchris has created so yeah it's
it's it's underwhelming is thebest that i can describe it like
to see her leave at the end ofthe of these three issues like
(42:25):
whatever.
It's funny that everyone keepsshooting down Scott but so I
know that at some point Dazzlerdoes become part of the team and
plays like a major role but shealso becomes like very well
liked by the community.
So recently I spent too muchtime on Reddit and in the X-Men
(42:51):
Reddit they ran a 50 best X-Menmembers where every day they
would vote on a new person to beadded to the list.
What day do you think they addedDazzler?
Hmm.
Is the day the ranking of wherethey are?
Yeah.
Day one is Cyclops.
That's like the best X-Men islike day one?
(43:13):
Okay.
Essentially.
That's like the general ideabehind it.
Okay.
So it's like Cyclops, Wolverine,Storm, Nightcrawler, Jean Grey
as like the first five Dazzlers.
Okay, okay.
Spoilers.
I'm just going to throw a numberout there, 15.
Well, that would be moreimpressive than what I have, but
(43:33):
I feel like I kind of ruined itfor myself, but it's day 22,
which is ahead of characterslike X-23, Forge, Bishop,
Juggernaut, who is technicallynot a mutant, but whatever.
He's part of the X-Men now.
The list I'm looking at stops atday 37.
I didn't feel like finding themost recent one, but pretty
(43:57):
crazy.
The characters that you justnamed, with the exception of
Laura Kinney, like, I don'tknow, man.
I don't know that I've everreally cared about Bishop or
Forge.
I mean, Forge is pretty cool.
But when I think of the X-Men,like, I don't think of Forge.
No.
I think a lot of this, too, is alot of this list, I think, ends
(44:18):
up being giving thumbs up andkudos to people that were, like,
really important early on.
Like, Havoc is day 28 I probablywouldn't rank Havoc that high
poor Alex but overall like a lotof like the top 20 top 21 is
really solid I do like that wegot Polaris in at day 20 alright
(44:41):
I'm a big Polaris fan yeah Ialso like Lorna as we've talked
about before what uh there are alot of good X-Men characters
yeah well I mean it's a big poolman and I feel like even
recently they've really I thinkgone into the deep end to try
and pull characters that were alittle more obscure and bringing
them to the forefront to flushthem out because I mean like if
(45:04):
you keep on with the samecharacters over and over and
over again you're gonna run outof things to say kind of cycle
people in and out as we aredoing here as we're trying to do
here Scott Scott can't fill hisslot it kind of feels like we're
auditioning potential charactersfor this team like is Marvel at
(45:27):
this point just like we'llintroduce a few people find
someone who the audience likesand eventually bring them back
in and stick with it well as Isaid Dazzler is a bad example I
think here yeah well I didn'thave that knowledge you ruined
it for me yeah I'm sorry but Imean like it's obvious that
(45:47):
Kitty is going to join the teamI don't know what is going to
kind of happen after that like Imean she has to she's day seven
on the list with 200 votes.
Jesus.
That doesn't seem like a lot.
Well, it's the most.
So Cyclops won with 102 votes.
How many people are on thesubreddit?
(46:08):
Is it popular?
Well, it's like 300,000.
It's ranked top 1% by size.
But, I mean, not everyone'sgonna actually vote and
participate.
To vote, you also had to write aparagraph about why they were
awesome.
So, I think that's probably partof it there was a barrier to
entry gotcha yeah okay versusjust like wolverine is best
(46:33):
x-man i mean i'd put him upthere he's he's number two yeah
okay i was gonna say yeah i'dprobably put him number two i
mean i feel like scott is thex-man so wolverine is uh i think
more famous like in pop culturethan cyclops but well we've had
(46:54):
bad depiction of Cyclops inmovies which is weird because I
also really like the actor likeI feel like they got a good
actor for him in that originaltrilogy but they just you know
he didn't have the writing toreally work with or maybe the
direction well I think the issuewas always that Logan was going
(47:14):
to be the main character yeahright rather than it being a I
think like a true team where theteam is the main character every
X-Men movie was always basedaround Wolverine and you know
like whatever it is what it isbut you know we've never seen
Scott being a commandingrespected leader of the team
(47:38):
we've always seen him be kind oflike the jealous you know cocky
Logan's heel and yeah yeah yeaha barrier to him dating Jean his
romantic foil which you knowstill didn't hold why or later
on but I think the fact that weare discussing this and not the
(47:58):
book I think speaks a lot aboutthis issue because there's
really it was alright I don'tknow man it meandered there are
some interesting things thathappened you know the flashback
the kiss you know those areinteresting developments that
don't get explored but whilewe're on the topic of the kiss
(48:19):
at least I do have like notesabout that I really appreciate
the brief conversation of Gene'slike Scott we need to talk about
what just went down and hisreply is basically definitely
however we do need to finishthis and do it somewhere private
and peaceful and not in thiscrazed disco club like the
(48:41):
issues that those two charactershad for for so long was just hey
they're not talking to eachother they don't know how to
communicate Scott represses allhis emotions and instead they're
like hey we need to talk aboutthis let's you know it's a good
evolution of their relationshipand departure from some of the
(49:02):
early issues that we saw themhaving yeah I agree it's nice to
see the growth between themespecially like after seeing
them rekindle their relationshipand the way they did and I also
really like I just really likehow they're playing Jason here
and the way he is just soconfidently manipulating Jean
(49:26):
without her really realizing itand Jean talks a lot about like
passively picking up like themental thoughts of people like
both in the club right like sheshe's already and we've seen her
kind of I think flirt with thisidea of the darker side of her
personality which obviously isbeing injected with adrenaline
(49:51):
from Jason but even earlier thanthat in the last issue she was
talking about how oh yeah like Ipicked up on the stuff about
Colleen because other peoplewere thinking about it yeah I'm
assuming members of the X-Menwere thinking about that pretty
hard like oh my god what aboutScott and Colleen what is he
(50:13):
gonna do they are making outlike oh this is so dramatic the
tea a love triangle in realitywe're probably never gonna see
Colleen again in these bookswith Which is, like, whatever.
It's fine.
I think Colleen played a roleand, you know, it's okay.
But I think seeing Jason and,like, the plan here being, like,
(50:35):
don't worry, Shaw.
Like, I got this.
Like, she's going to willinglycome and join us.
Like, she's gonna see that shebelongs here in the Hellfire
Club.
That she is the Black Queen.
And we see that outfit.
Like, I think we saw it before.
Like, earlier on in the I thinkit was in the Proteus arc.
(50:57):
I don't know if we saw theoutfit, but we saw maybe the top
of it.
She had that hairstyle and themakeup and the demeanor that
she's portraying as the BlackQueen.
She had a whip, too, for somereason.
I think she does have a whip inthis issue, yeah.
(51:19):
Just to complete the dominatrixlook that she has going on, I
suppose.
But...
I really, really like that thisspecifically has been a slow
burn.
And we're kind of seeing this, Ithink like a degrading of her
morals, as we'll see in the nextissue when she's kind of dealing
(51:42):
with these thugs from, you know,the Hellfire Club.
And she's just kind of, I thinklike disregarding things a
little bit more than she wouldhave before.
And you can see the othermembers of the team question
what she's doing because itseems so unethical and not to
mention Kitty's parents yeah andwe'll get to that but there's
(52:03):
even a scene in the next issuewhere these hellfire goons are
like trying to run her down witha car and she basically throws I
think it's like some like trashcans at them but like they just
she like obliterates the car andcrushes it like a tin can yeah
and Scott like is like what thehell are you doing like Jean
(52:26):
like we don't do that and she'sjust like you didn't hear the
fear that was in Kitty's headyou didn't feel what I felt and
it all comes back to this gamethat Jason is playing so like I
really have enjoyed seeing thisplaying out over several issues
(52:46):
like this evolution of Jeanslowly but surely succumbing to
the darkness and we all knowIt's going to lead us to the
Dark Phoenix.
(53:24):
You're pushed out of anairplane, then you fall to
Earth.
Mm-hmm.
It was an alright book.
Uh, yeah, I mean, I put, meh, myfinal line of my notes for this
issue.
It was what it was.
It continued pushing the storyforward.
Mm-hmm.
It's fine.
Whatever.
On to the next one.
And with that, in issue 131, theHellfire Club attempts to run
(53:48):
Kitty down in a car, but Phoenixsteps in.
Scott is angry at Jean over herdestruction of the car, but Jean
explains that she felt Kitty'sterror, and they got what they
deserve.
This is a new mood that worriesScott.
Kitty recounts her story for theX-Men and Jean inspects a
Hellfire Goon's mind for somemore info.
(54:09):
She immediately recognizes thather quote, ancestor's husband in
her flashbacks was in theHellfire Club and wonders if
there's a connection there.
The X-Men pull a Trojan horse tosneak into Frost Industries so
they can save their teammatesand Kitty goes directly to
Wolverine's cage to break himout.
(54:31):
Goons end up shooting Kitty witha stun blast, and Wolverine
informs them that they just madethe worst and last mistake of
their lives.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crewbegins their rescue mission and
fight their way inside.
While they do, Scott keepspondering how frightened he is
of Jean's powers.
Emma plans to completely eraseStorm's identity, but a
(54:55):
crazed-looking phoenix confrontsher and begins a psychic
assault.
The team reunites sans ProfessorX, who told Wolverine he was
splitting off on his own andthat he should go rescue Storm.
With ease, Jean smashes throughEmma's defenses.
The Phoenix energy construct issapping Emma's life force, and
(55:16):
she uses a Psybolt as alast-ditch effort to escape.
A building collapses on them.
Storm and Phoenix are buried inrubble, but emerge triumphantly,
with Jean saying that it's goingto more than a collapsing
building to do her in.
Professor X emerges andcongratulates the teen, saying
he wanted to hang back and justobserve.
(55:38):
When returning Kitty to herhome, the professor offers
Desler a spot on the team, whichshe turns down.
Kitty's parents are relieved tosee her and quite angry with the
professor.
Gene thinks that enough's enoughand alters his thoughts quite
drastically.
Scott is disappointed by this,but Gene explains that it saves
them a lot of grief and that noharm was done by her memory
(56:01):
modifications.
The issue ends with Cyclops andStorm discussing how Jean has
changed and that there is awrongness to her.
Storm specifically notes that itseems like there is a dark side
to the Phoenix and that it seemslike someone is manipulating her
to help it grow.
I wonder who that could be.
(56:22):
Sean Cassidy.
Not that we've been discussingit repeatedly through this
entire episode.
said but what were your overallthoughts on this issue I thought
it was you know I picked thingsup from the previous one though
I thought you know 130 was a bitof a lull 131 I thought was a
(56:43):
good step forward in terms ofprogressing the story really
feels like we're moving towardthings and it had that good mix
of action non-action the actionwas pretty fun and Scattered
around to a bunch of differentspots within Frost Industries
(57:04):
with a bunch of differentcharacters.
So I like the variety.
There was a really cool panelwith Nightcrawler banthing
around and taking out some ofthe goons, which I will now use
to describe these guys, who arealso like anti-mutant.
They keep throwing mutie around.
It's even stranger knowing thatthey work for...
(57:27):
They are in the employ of...
a rich mutant it's weird it's aweird dynamic but rich people
are weird though yeah yeah theyare one thing i did want to
quickly call out is theevolution of kitty pride over
these three issues is verydirect right like we are first
introduced to her because she'shaving headaches she's
(57:49):
experiencing her powers for thefirst time we see her phase
through the floor in her homewhen emma's there as she's like
trying to like relax in herbedroom and she wakes up She's
downstairs and she happens tomost adolescents.
And we see her like later onface through the walls while
she's trying to escape Emma.
You know, the X-Men are onlyeven rescued because she's able
(58:11):
to break into where Storm andLogan and Colossus are being
held.
You see that Xavier's also beencaptured off panel.
Yeah, that was random.
I was really confused last issuewhen they're like, Xavier's been
taken too.
I had to go back and flipthrough to make sure I didn't
skip it.
page well even the wholeinterjection of xavier in this
(58:34):
at all just seems totallymeaningless he could be easily
removed from this entire threeissue arc without really losing
anything he is essentiallyremoved what are you talking
about well he literally justgets up and leaves on his own
like after logan and get up youdon't have to be insensitive
(58:59):
that's He just, he, he justleaves the team though.
Like he just gets up and goesand tells them off panel again
to go get storm.
Uh, he comes back after they'vewon the day and he's like,
congratulations.
Well, he's probably like, it wasme.
It was me the whole time.
It was my master plan ofconvincing you that you were the
(59:21):
ones actually doing this.
He does know how to pick out agood team.
He's a good scout.
Yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
It's, It's very clear that Scottis the head coach here and he's
just like the scout who waslike, yeah, you should pick up
this guy.
He's talented.
Yeah.
But as we see in Moneyball,sometimes that's the position
that matters more.
Shout out to Moneyball.
(59:43):
I don't think that's theposition that matters most here,
though.
Scott is very clearly laid out.
But, you know, even seeing Kittyuse her powers to phase into the
lock and and unlock it like shehas developed her powers very
quickly in a very short likelike a day basically and it's
(01:00:07):
just like a really coolevolution of the character like
already like she's more thanjust somebody who can phase
through the ground or phasethrough a wall and I like I can
see the challenge of trying tomake a character like that
interesting to readers and alsolike to readers that are
predominantly boy teenagersright and that's who they're
(01:00:30):
targeting so like to see herutilizing her powers in more of
a practical way like this isactually how she can help the
X-Men escape troublingsituations and for her to be 13
and helping them get out 13 anda half it's very very brave and
a very great scene that I thinkwill speak towards the future
(01:00:52):
relationship that Logan andKitty have where she helps them
get out and she gets blasted didwith a stun beam or something
from one of these goons andLogan has like is holding her in
his arms and is like this is thebiggest mistake you've ever made
in your life as he like shootsout his claws I like that he
(01:01:14):
most definitely murders themwhile he's still holding Kitty
yeah he definitely 100% didthere's a lot of killing of bad
guys in this early X-Men that Idon't associate with Mormon
modern stories where they're youknow going out of their way to
not do murder unless we'retalking like an X-Force
(01:01:35):
situation but Wolverine's justsort of been allowed to run wild
at times I think he's pickingand choosing when to be brutal
you know what I mean they didhave it coming I think he's is
probably recognized that whenhe's around Scott especially he
has to play by Scott's rules andby you the rules of the X-Men,
(01:02:00):
but when he is not in hiscompany, as was the case here,
it's up to his discretion to dowhat is needing to be done.
The head coach is gone.
I'm calling the plays.
Well, he was accused of tryingto become the head coach.
I also wanted to quickly mentionthe appreciation to the art team
(01:02:25):
for going through the meticulouseffort of drawing drawing
Wolverine's hairy body.
Dude is furry.
He is so furry, man.
He's just one stocky rug.
It's so funny juxtaposed next toPeter, who is just hairless.
(01:02:48):
I do like that Peter iscompletely just squeaky clean.
He's definitely waxing hischest.
I mean, maybe it's a side effectof his mutant power, you know,
like When you're constantlytransforming your skin into
metal, maybe it just waxes itoff for you.
It's like a Gillette razor.
It just shaves it off as itcomes active.
(01:03:12):
He just leaves little piles ofstubble whenever he transforms.
It's a side effect of his mutantpowers.
But we've seen him with a beardlater on, so.
And he has, like, head hair.
I don't know.
Whatever.
That's different.
It's not body hair.
Let's, like, get crazy.
Yeah, I thought this book was,like, it was fine.
(01:03:35):
I liked it more than theprevious issue.
I think seeing Geneprogressively become more
aggressive and careless and Ithink being more a little
vindictive and yeah and like Idon't think her rationale was
(01:03:57):
out of the box given like herargument that she could sense
the fear and everything that hadjust happened with Kitty and not
to mention the acts of which youknow these goons are trying to
take her down so like I don'tthink it's I don't think any
reasonable person would havesaid probably What are you
(01:04:19):
doing?
Hold on.
But we know Scott is, you know,he's a bit of a boy scout.
So you got to play by the rules.
They're heroes.
They're not villains here.
And like, I respect that.
But I think now is, you know,the way for us to close this out
is really talking about theending sequence here where
(01:04:39):
Xavier is like getting reamedout by Kitty's father, who does
not sound like she wants to sendher to his school.
And then suddenly his mind haschanged because Jean has changed
it.
And it was great to meet you.
Please call me by my first name.
(01:05:00):
I love your school.
Given everything that's takenplace in these issues, it is
like a drastic development inher turn to the dark side.
Yeah.
And I feel like this whole threeissues has really been both a
demonstration in that falling tothe dark side and just a like
(01:05:23):
the ease at which sheaccomplishes anything and
everything in these three issuesnothing is a threat to her I
mean at one point she's kind oftaken out of the game went until
Dazzler frees her but like ifshe's not surprised she's just
like crushing cars uncrushingthem puppeting unconscious
(01:05:46):
people really destroying Emma ina little psychic battle and
maybe trying to kill her afterthat fight was really cool too
between her and Emma and youknow anytime we can get the
phoenix superimposed over Jeanusing her powers.
(01:06:08):
Like, give it to me, man.
I eat that up.
Every time we've seen it, itlooks awesome.
And this issue delivers itseveral times.
Phoenixes are cool.
That's why people tattoo themonto their bodies.
Do you have a phoenix tattoo?
No, but I wouldn't be opposed toit.
I got dragons.
(01:06:28):
I have Scott Pilgrim and RamonaFlowers.
Some Keyblades.
a Bioshock quote and a littlething for the Firefly TV show.
I have a Chinese dragon that'skind of like in the shape of a
dagger and then I have a tattooof my first D&D character.
(01:06:50):
Nice.
That's a good choice.
No phoenix though.
No phoenixes.
I would get like a phoenix witha I don't know.
Eating a burrito.
That would be the no i wouldn'tget that i would that would be
sick i love burritos i i dude ilove burritos too so much one of
(01:07:12):
my biggest regrets in life isactually so a friend in college
we were at the tattoo shop andhe tried to get me to get a
burrito flash tattoo likerandomly no like planning at all
just like we're there it's likehey you should get this burrito
tattoo but with wings you know iI did think about it, and I
(01:07:36):
think one of my regrets in lifeis not getting it.
It's never too late, man.
Yeah.
Somebody else can do it.
It's a burrito with wings.
Tattoos are expensive.
Yeah, true dat.
Is there anything else that youwanted to cover?
I feel like we hit all the majorthings.
Just that I really like theconversation with Scott and
(01:07:56):
Storm right at the end with, youknow, we're not only getting
Scott hemming and hawing about,like, hmm, I don't know gene is
sure acting weird we also getstorm who they've established
has a very close connection withgene being like yo i am very
worried about this this uh doesnot seem right and i think she's
(01:08:23):
actually the one that makes thatmention of like it seems like
someone's manipulating herphoenix side to be evil and to
get progressively worse It's abit of a leap, I think, for them
to be making that conclusionlike out of seemingly nowhere.
Like she's been totally fine upto this point and she's had like
(01:08:44):
one one aggressive day.
I wouldn't say she's beentotally fine.
I think it's been like aprogressive thing.
I don't know.
Maybe it doesn't make as muchsense from Storm's point of
view.
It's hard to picture everythingthat we've read.
I think it's there for thereader, obviously, to pick up on
the fact that like her teammatesare seeing a personality change
(01:09:06):
which i think is fair and shedid have front row seats to the
emma situation yeah as scottasks her about yeah it was a
nice inclusion to continuepainting this picture that
everything is not all right ingene's world and it looks like
it's going to continue to bethat way since the tease for the
next issue is and hellfire istheir name so we're keeping on
(01:09:31):
this track we're not doing likea little side I'm all in, baby.
Give it to me.
So what's your rating?
Pretty high.
I don't know.
I thought this was a good followup to the Proteus books.
It's a really hard four issuesto follow, and it's not quite at
(01:09:53):
that same level.
But even with the dip in thesecond issue, I still feel like
I'm looking at like an eight outof 10.
Okay.
It just feels like we're reallyrolling.
We're really moving the storyforward.
We're introducing Shaw, Emma,Kitty, Dazzler, some good action
(01:10:16):
in that third one.
A lot of little events here andthere that are interesting to
see even in the second issue.
I think it's very solid.
I think I would give it a littlelower, like a 7 out of 10.
I did really like 129.
I think it really stands out.
satisfied coming off of theProteus arc and wrap things up
(01:10:39):
nicely with like the group ofpeople who were kind of leaving
behind and with you know thisdevelopment with Sean and the
love kind of reigniting betweenGene and all the and Scott and
all these new characters that weget I really really enjoyed
issue 129 and then you know asI've not shied away at my
(01:11:00):
distaste for 130 and 131 I thinkwas much better than 130 just
continuing the story forward andreally appreciating this long
the long game that we're kind ofseeing play out with Jason and
his mind games with Gene so yeahI think 7 out of 10 is what I
(01:11:20):
would give it and you'reabsolutely right it is hard I
think to follow up on the fourissues with the Proteus arc as I
said it was my favorite by farso far and I'm okay with that
not being the same caliber rightlike I think it would diminish
(01:11:41):
those stories if every singlearc was that quality it would be
very difficult to do so comingoff of that and like I think
your assessment of things arerolling and I feel like we've
been rolling like pretty goodfor the last couple of arcs like
things have felt good like theyhave had their problems sure but
(01:12:04):
like overall they've been veryenjoyable and i i would i don't
think we're altering course hereand given the fact that we're
moving further along with thehellfire stuff and knowing that
dark phoenix is around thecorner that gives me enough
interest and seeing everythingkind of play out and really
seeing this master plan thislong game that chris has been
(01:12:26):
writing play out over the nextcouple of issues i'm assuming
exciting stuff that does it forthis episode of uncanned Thanks
for tuning in to this episode ofUncanny Book Club.
(01:12:48):
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